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2008 •
The historical case study of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit’s creation of the first mercury thermometer with reliable scales is used as the basis for a lesson that is designed to provide students with a richer insight into the arbitrary nature of thermometer scales. The lesson attempts to move students beyond a level of understanding that is based simply on knowing how to read and use a thermometer, to a level of understanding that is based on knowing the very procedures and principles used to create thermometric scales. By studying the criteria that Fahrenheit used to create his scale, students should begin to obtain a richer insight into the arbitrary nature of thermometer scales in general. It is argued that it is insufficient to teach students how to read and use thermometers without giving them some notion of how a scale came into existence because no real insight is being provided into the nature of science. Students must be introduced to the actual procedures used by scientists if...
2015 •
ABSTRACT: The historical case study of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit’s creation of the first mercury thermometer with reliable scales is used as the basis for a lesson that is designed to provide students with a richer insight into the arbitrary nature of thermometer scales. The lesson attempts to move students beyond a level of understanding that is based simply on knowing how to read and use a thermometer, to a level of understanding that is based on knowing the very procedures and principles used to create thermometric scales. By studying the criteria that Fahrenheit used to create his scale, students should begin to obtain a richer insight into the arbitrary nature of thermometer scales in general. It is argued that it is insufficient to teach students how to read and use thermometers without giving them some notion of how a scale came into existence because no real insight is being provided into the nature of science. Students must be introduced to the actual procedures used by sci...
2012 •
Climatic Change
A summer temperature bias in early alcohol thermometers2016 •
This paper analyses the response of alcohol thermometers in relation to the departure from linearity and the choice of the calibration points. The result is that alcohol thermometers are affected by large departures that reach a maximum (i.e. −6 °C) at 50 °C ambient temperature. This may have caused a severe bias in early records, when alcohol thermometers were popular, especially during the Little Ice Age. Choosing a lower temperature for the upper point, calibration may substantially reduce this bias. Examples are given with thermometers in use in the 17th and 18th centuries. A careful correction of long series is necessary to avoid misleading climate interpretations.
2020 •
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A
Thermoscopes, thermometers, and the foundations of measurement2011 •
The early history of thermometry is most commonly described as the result of a continuous development rather than the product of a single brilliant mind, and yet scholars have often credited the Italian physician Santorio Santori (1561–1636) with the invention of the first thermometers. The purpose of using such instruments within the traditional context of Galenic medicine, however, has not been investigated and scholars have consistently assumed that, being subject to the influence of atmospheric pressure and environmental heat, Santorio’s instruments provided unreliable measurements. The discovery that, as early as 1612, Santorio describes all vacuum-related phenomena as effects of the atmospheric pressure of the air, provides ample room for reconsidering his role in the development of precision instruments and the early history of thermometry in particular. By drawing on a variety of written and visual sources, some unpublished, in the first part of this article I argue that Santorio’s appreciation of phenomena related to the weight of the air allowed him to construct the first thermometers working as sealed devices. Finally, in the second part, I consider Santorio’s use of the thermometer as related to the seventeenth-century medical practice and his way to measure the temperature as based on a wide sample of individuals.
The text is the draft version of a chapter (Essay_06-1) of the forthcoming English edition of my book "Greek Postwar Architecture. Essays & Monographs", Athens: Reflections Architects’ Files
Imprints of British architecture and education in Greece, 1967-19962024 •
Cuadernos filosóficos. Segunda época.
Neoaristotelismo contemporáneo, realismo moral y ética evolutiva.2023 •
Paper presented at the Critical Listening and Diverse Narratives Session, American Education Research Association 2019 Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON.
Mindfulness Discourse Communities: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Community Based Curriculum for Youth Who Are Labeled At-Risk2019 •
2016 •
Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders
Is the Iranian Traditional Medicine warm and cold temperament related to Basal Metabolic Rate and activity of the sympathetic-parasympathetic system? Study protocol2014 •
European Journal of Therapeutics
Investigation of the Protective Effects of Nigella Sativa Oil and Thymoquinone in Radiation Exposed Rats2018 •
Physical Review B
Four-site tunneling of H trapped by substitutional Zr in Nb1994 •
Imago. Stali di cinema i media
The New woman as a Dramatic Character in Ekaterina Ivanovna by Leonid Andeev: First Film and Stage Adaptations2023 •
De logica van het landschap. Opstellen over archeologie, ecologie en geschiedenis.
De logica van het landschap. Opstellen over archeologie, ecologie en geschiedenis.2024 •